This invention relates to a mechanism for minimizing damage to automotive vehicles during accidents on the highways. The damage-minimizing mechanism comprises a resilient impact-absorption means carried on the front and/or rear end of an automotive vehicle. Normally the impact-absorption mechanism is in a retracted position close to the front or rear end of the vehicle. At the onset of an accident the impact-absorption mechanism is extended away from the vehicle, so as to be in position to receive the blow from the other vehicle and recoil with minimal damage to the vehicle on which the impact-absorption mechanism is carried.
In its preferred form the impact-absorption mechanism comprises one of more air bags carried in a collapsed condition at the front or rear end of a vehicle. Should another vehicle approach the vehicle sufficiently close as to make a collision likely, a pneumatic pressure source on board the vehicle is triggered to discharge pressurized gas into the airbag, causing the bag to inflate and expand from the end of the vehicle into the path of the other vehicle. Impaction forces generated by the other vehicle deflect the bag to decelerate the other vehicle and prevent or minimize damage to the vehicle that carries the airbag.
The principal aim of the invention is to minimize vehicle damage associated with vehicle accidents. However, in some cases the mechanism can reduce the seriousness of injuries to persons riding in the vehicles; the impact-absorption mechanism decelerates the oncoming vehicle in a somewhat gradual fashion, such that the vehicle occupants may experience a lessened shock force as the two vehicles impact together (following deflection of the airbag).